Surya had earlier said, "Subhas Bose did not belong just to his direct family. He had himself said that the whole country is his family. I do not think it's just the duty of the family to raise this issue (of declassification of Netaji files)."

"It is the duty of the people of India to raise the issue. If I do get an opportunity to meet the Prime Minister, talk to him for a few minutes, then I would certainly raise the issue," he had said.

Surya, also the president of the Indo-German Association in Hamburg, was invited by the Indian Embassy to attend the reception for Modi.

Another grand nephew of the charismatic leader, Chandra Bose has said, "The time has now come to declassify Netaji files. Saying it would affect India's relations with other nations is simply a lame excuse. The Modi government has been talking of transparency and now it is the time to provide transparency by releasing those files which will tell us what happened to Netaji during his last years."

PMO earlier had refused to disclose files related to netaji

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in a recent RTI reply accepted that there were 41 files related to Netaji, of which two had been declassified, but refused to disclose the others, arguing that the "disclosure would prejudicially affect relations with foreign countries".

A host of Netaji's descendants, enthusiasts and historians and organisations have been campaigning for declassification of secret files claimed to be in possession of various government departments.

Observation of different committees

Mukherjee Commission report denied Netaji's death in plane crash. Two other committees Shah Nawaz Committee, Khosla Commission were also formed by former Prime Ministers Jawahar Lal Nehru and Indira Gandhi respectively.

The Khosla Commission created by the government of Indira Gandhi reported that all the documents relating to Subhas Chandra Bose were either missing or destroyed .